ILLINOIS, December 4 - Additional Funding Opportunity Coming Soon

SPRINGFIELD —Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Acting Director James Jennings today announced that the Agency's Office of Energy has awarded $285,400 in the third funding round of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program. The Illinois EECBG Program supports municipalities and counties with the development or revision of existing strategic energy or climate action plans, as well as supplemental energy efficiency audits and publicly owned building upgrades.

The recipients of third round EECBG Program funding are:

• Crawford County - $108,000

• City of Rochelle (Ogle County) - $150,000

• Village of Riverside (Cook County) - $27,400

In total, Illinois EPA has awarded $1,837,082 to fourteen (14) municipalities and counties across Illinois through the program.

A fourth-round and likely final funding opportunity is forthcoming to invest Illinois' remaining EECBG funding in energy efficiency projects identified within municipal and county energy plans. Illinois' EECBG program was established by funding distributed by U.S. Department of Energy through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). In Illinois, the funding has been competitively offered to municipalities and counties statewide to advance local energy planning and improve building energy efficiency and resiliency, specifically in areas of environmental concern. Municipalities and counties eligible for direct formula funding through the U.S. DOE are not eligible for funding through this state program.